Spiritual Yearning, Mystical Experiences, and Existential Meaning in Life: A Global Perspective
Ara Norenzayan (University of British Columbia)
Steven J. Heine (University of British Columbia)
Award: $250,000
Start Date: October 1, 2026
End Date: September 20, 2028
Focus: This project will conduct the first large-scale global investigation of spiritual yearning and mystical experience. It will estimate how common these experiences are, what forms they take, and how they relate to several dimensions of flourishing: happiness, meaning in life, psychological richness, and physical health. The study is designed to represent all populated continents, the five largest religious traditions, and nonreligious populations, with special comparisons among people who are spiritual but not religious, lifelong 'nones,' and formerly religious 'dones.'
Approach: Approximately 10,000 participants in 20 countries will complete a common survey, with nationally representative samples of roughly 500 people per country. The researchers will test whether spiritual yearning prompts mystical experiences that support flourishing, whether diminished meaning instead prompts yearning, and how these relationships depend on cultural acceptance, secularization, material conditions, trauma, and religious identity. They will also test the 'common-core' thesis that mystical experiences share recurring features - such as unity, ego dissolution, insight, and ineffability - across cultures and traditions.
Contribution: The result will be an unprecedented comparative database for evaluating what is universal and what is culturally variable in spiritual yearning and mysticism. The project will follow open-science standards, including preregistration, independent reproducibility checks, and public release of anonymized data and code. Planned outputs include three major scholarly articles, conference presentations, graduate-student training, and public-facing scholarship on spirituality in a changing global religious landscape.
